The Electronic Discovery (E-Discovery) means a process of securing evidence by collecting, preparing and investigating digital evidences related to a lawsuit or a regulation. In accordance with an internal message log management provision of a company related to the E-Discovery rules published in December 2006 in the United States, the company should fulfill an obligation to submit a 3 to 5 year electronic message log of a person involved in the lawsuit. The electronic message log message, which includes the particulars of electronic mails (E-mail), web mails, messengers, and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), should be submitted to the court within 120 days from a request date. That is, all companies such as listed-financial agencies or large enterprises should construct a system complying with the provision in accordance with the E-Discovery. The listed firms as well as enterprises handling important data, e.g., in an international patent litigation are required to introduce the system in accordance with the E-Discovery rules. As an example, one enterprise in the United States has been fined about 10 billion dollars because it couldn't submit an email message log data within a designated date by the court. This case is an example of showing how important to introduce the system.
However, most of related art message archive (or management) systems have been introduced for the purpose of monitoring a leakage of important data to the outside. Accordingly, the related art message archive systems provides only a message archive service focused on the electronic mail (E-mail) transmitted to the outside and employs a manner of storing data for only a certain period (e.g., the latest three months) at an on-line storage and backing up the other data.
Thus, the related art message archive system may not satisfy the legal requirements at an aspect of the message log management. Accordingly, a message log management system to better satisfy the legal requirements in the obligation of managing the electronic message log is required.